


Matchmaking

by theshippingexpress



Category: Shall We Date?: Wizardess Heart+
Genre: Matchmaking, Multi, too many ships to name - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:28:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22915504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theshippingexpress/pseuds/theshippingexpress
Summary: Liz wants to confess to Hugo. Instead she proposes that they play matchmakers! Will she ever be able to confess her feelings?
Relationships: Main Character/Hugo Peers
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

“So, Liz, what did you want to talk to me about?”

I'd told myself a thousand times over that today was finally going to be the day that I told Hugo how I felt. I'd chickened out too many times before! But.. now that I was facing him, I found myself at a loss for words.

“Well, I-” He was watching me with those pretty golden eyes. “It's about- you and I-” No, that wasn't right, “No, I mean, I.. I have-” Why did he have to be so pretty? “What I mean to say is-”

“Liz, are you all right?”

“Your powers!” I blurted out. That was a safe way to talk. “I want to help you with your powers!”

“..My powers? How so?”

' _You can recharge off my feelings for you-'_

“I-” Why couldn't I just say it? “I'm going to help you find couples to charge from!” Why did I say that?!

He stared at me in bafflement. “Liz,” he said slowly, “thank you, but I don't need-”

“No, really! I want to help you!” I insisted. “This way you can be stronger! I insist!”

Surprise flickered across his face- and then he smiled. “Very well. If you insist.”

“Where are we going?”

“This will be the easiest place to find couples!” Hugo and I were on our way to the lake. “The students call this the date course; it is _the_ place to take your date on campus!”

“Very well.” Suddenly, Hugo grabbed my hand. “It'll be easier if we can stick together.” He did it so easily- It felt nice to have his attention, but at the same time, under his gaze, it felt like my heart was about to burst!

“We- we should start looking for couples!” I blurted out. We took a seat on a bench, scanning the area. We lapsed into silence, but Hugo seemed.. content.

' _He's been a lot more relaxed ever since we beat Felix in the Magical Board Game competition,_ ' I thought. ' _It's really good to see.'_

“It's pretty quiet today,” I admitted. “Do you think we'll be able to see any couples?”

Hugo smirked. “I see at least one now.” I followed his gaze to see Caesar and Alfonse strolling through the yard, happily discussing something.

“What? Caesar and Alfonse aren't a couple.” Surprise flickered across his face, and he looked away. “Wait-” Well, he was the Gatherer of Love. “Can you sense people's feelings for each other?”

“I didn't used to be able to, but since my powers have gotten stronger, it's gotten easier.” Huh, I wonder why that was. “And I sense a lot of love from those two.”

I looked over at them, and I was starting to see it. Even walking through the yard, I could see how their hands drifted to each other, how Alfonse was laughing a lot at Caesar's jokes- oh, and they were coming this way!

“Oh, hey, you two. What are you two doing here?” Crap! It wasn't like I could tell them that Hugo would recharge his magic from them-

“Caesar,” Alfonse said with a laugh, “I think that's pretty obvious! Sitting together, holding hands- not to mention being on the date course- can't you see?”

“Oh, no, it's not like that-” I said quickly. Was I just imagining Hugo's hand tightening in mine?

“Of course, we're just teasing you,” Alfonse said with a sweet smile.

“Say, did I tell you that I got turned into a pig again this morning?” Caesar said. “Luckily, Alfonse was there to turn me back.”

“Sure, sure!” Well, now it seemed obvious..

As they walked away, Hugo held up his hand, charging his powers with a smile. We both burst into laughter. “Well, it looks like our mission was successful,” he said. “Now we can go back, and-”

“No!” I blurted out without thinking. We had just settled down! “We need to- find more couples!” I quickly gathered myself. “I mean, the more you can recharge, the stronger you are, right?”

“I don't think-”

“Oh, look!” Now there was a couple even I knew. “There's Vain and Lizzy!”

Now, it was Hugo's turn to look confused. “They're not dating.”

“I'm pretty sure they are? Everyone knows they are. See?” As I pointed to them, Vain gave Lizzy a peck on the cheek.

“..I think I need to chat with Vain. Though that would explain a lot.”

As we spoke, said couple came up to us. “It's nice to see you two,” Vain said pleasantly. “Hey, Hugo, there's something I wanted to ask you about that last mission-”

“Yeah, I wanted to ask you something.” Lizzy giggled as they stepped away.

“It looks like you and Hugo are getting closer,” she said. “Did you tell him yet?” Okay, I might have gone on and on to her about Hugo. She teased me just as much about him as I teased her about Vain.

“No, not yet,” I said. “I tried to, but I ended up blurting out that I wanted to help him find couples to charge from.”

“Not a bad idea. But, you know, if you ever want help, I'm sure I can lend a hand-”

“That didn't really work out last time, did it? I remember a lot of glitter and a Chimera-”

“It was fine!” she assured me. “Everything was fine!”

“What are you two talking about?” As Vain and Hugo approached us, I quickly put a finger to my lips.

Lizzy giggled, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend. “Nothing, nothing! Did you get everything settled?”

“Yup. We should get going,” he said. “There's still that place that I wanted to show you..”

“Of course. It was nice seeing you two~” Lizzy said. “Oh, and good luck!” With a wave, they left. Hugo asked me what she meant, but I couldn't give him an answer.

The next day, I tried to confess my feelings to Hugo again- but the same thing happened. That time, we went to the Greenhouse, the next stop on the date course. There weren't many people around, so I started showing Hugo some of the flowers.

“These flowers are really beautiful, aren't they?” I asked. “They're some of my favorites-” I looked up, my heart jumping at how close Hugo was to me-

“Not as beautiful as-”

“Oh, hey, what are you two doing here?”

A few hours later, Hugo and I finally made it back to his house. “Who knew that Mel and Clive would be on a date too?” I said with a sigh, sitting on his couch. “I guess it figured they'd come there. Could've done without the lecture from Mel..”

“It was pretty funny to see Clive taking notes even on that,” Hugo said with a grin. “He was hanging onto Mel's every word.”

“Mhmm. The look in his eyes could only be matched by how Cerim was looking when Joel was singing.” Yeah, the trip to the music room wasn't any better.

I looked up to see Hugo looking at me intently. My heart jumped a bit. “You know, I really appreciate you doing this for me,” he said. “This has been a lot of fun.” Well, it was worth it when he smiled like that.

“No problem!” Hugo hummed.

“I guess I have lots of choices to charge from.” Great, now my excuse was running out-

“But-” I said, “won't you get bored with the same old couples?”

“I think that we found every couple on campus.”

“Just because those are the only couples doesn't mean there's no love on campus,” I blurted out. “There's still a lot of people who have crushes.” Like my huge crush on Hugo that I couldn't seem to get out for the life of me!

“I'm not quite sure what to do about that,” he said with a sigh. “What are we supposed to do, play matchmaker?”

Just when I thought I couldn't embarrass myself further- “That's.. exactly what we should do!”


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Hugo and I asked around campus about people's crushes. And while some of them were more reluctant than others, we got a longer list than we thought. And, who would think, quite a few of our lists matched!

“So both Elias and Yukiya said they had crushes on each other. So have Gray and Lars, Hisoka and Ted, Leon and Azusa, and.. quite a few others.” Hugo read out from our list. Plenty of couples to stall- I mean, help. That's why I was doing this. “Not bad. Who should we start with?”

“How about Leon and Azusa? Everyone can see that they have feelings for each other.” I mean, I'm pretty sure the whole school was talking about those couples. Someone had to step in, eh?

Hugo hummed. “Well then, the simplest way would be to tell them that their crushes return their feelings. That should be easy enough.” Could it really be so easy?

“Do you really think this is going to work?” Leon asked, squirming as I brushed his hair.

“Of course, of course!” I said, tying off his braid. “Once he sees you, he'll have no choice but to accept your confession!”

“That sounds sinister..”

“No, no, that's not what I meant,” I said. “There, you look wonderful.” I looked over Leon one last time. I'd done his hair for him, and he'd put on a white outfit that Azusa had given him; he'd said it was a traditional Hinomotan wedding outfit. We'd arranged for them to meet at the Spring of Unicorns, where Leon would give his confession to Azusa.

'I wonder how Hugo's doing right now..' He had assured me that he could help Azusa talk through his feelings. I couldn't imagine how that was going.

“Now all that's left to do,” I said, “is the confession. But that's the hard part. Good luck.”

When I got there, Azusa and Hugo were already waiting; Azusa was dressed in a rich black outfit. “Are you sure about this?” he said again and again.

“Of course, of course!” And I saw a familiar head of silver hair. “Oh, we have to hide!” I grabbed Hugo's hand, pulling him behind the trees so we could watch. I saw Azusa standing up a little straighter, taking deep breaths.

“The outfit was a nice touch,” I told Hugo. “He looks good in black.” Hugo hummed.

We watched as Leon came down to the Spring of Unicorns; he seemed to glow, smiling as he came up to Azusa. He was carrying a bouquet of roses. “Azusa, I'm so happy to-” Aaaand he tripped, sending all the flowers scattered to the ground. Leon stared in shock, and I saw the faintest hint of tears in his eyes-

“Leon!” Azusa rushed to his side. “Are you all right?”

“This is- not how I wanted this to go,” Leon said. “I wanted to tell you how I felt in the perfect way-”

“How you felt?” Azusa asked. Leon nodded, and understanding dawned in his eyes. “Leon, there's something that I wanted to tell you too.”

“What?” Leon looked up, and Azusa gave him a sweet kiss.

He pulled away. “..Does that make things clear enough?” Leon nodded.

Hugo tugged on my sleeve. “Let's go. I think they can handle the rest of this from here.” We quietly slipped away, giggling all the while.

“Oh!” When I went to Hugo's house the next day, I got a bit of a surprise. Hugo was dressed in his suit from the party. “You look nice! What's the occasion?”

“No reason,” he said, smoothing down his outfit. “So, who should we help next?”

I looked at the list. “Hisoka and Ted,” I said. Ted had been pretty straightforward about his crush; I'd barely gotten the question out before he said Hisoka's name. And then somehow started interrogating me on my crush.

“Hisoka went on and on about Ted,” Hugo mused. “His tails were wagging and everything.”

“It's funny how someone could go on and on about their crush to someone else,” I mused, “but they have trouble telling the person themselves, isn't it?”

“Mhmm. Well, then this should be a fairly straightforward case.”

“Hmm, come to bug me again?”

“Well, Hugo and I were talking about your crush-”

“Of course you were.”

“It would be better if he heard it from you,” Hugo said bluntly. “He's crushing on you too.”

“Is that so?” Ted smirked. “Well then, I'll talk to him tomorrow.”

The next day, we peeked into Hisoka's market. We walked in time to see the look of shock on Hisoka's face- and Hisoka's tails popping out and wagging like crazy. When Hisoka pulled him in for a kiss, the entire market burst into applause.

“Next up is Elias and Yukiya,” Hugo said. “Well, what do you think, I'll talk to Yukiya, and you can talk to Elias?”

“No, no, it's too dangerous!” I said. “They're a lot more shy about it. I work with them; if that goes wrong, they'll never forgive me.”

“But it's obvious they both have feelings for each other.”

“But..” An idea was starting to brew. “Perhaps we could do something like that?”

He sat up a little straighter. “What were you thinking?”

“We leave Elias a love note, saying that Yukiya wrote it,” I said. “He pours out his feelings in the note, then we arrange for them to meet.”

“That's not a bad idea,” he said. “A note can be a good way to confess if you can't get the words out.” Hey, maybe that wasn't such a bad idea..

“Then let's start writing!” I grabbed a quill and a notebook. “Now, how would I start a love poem?” But each time I tried to put the quill to the paper, the words failed me. “How would Yukiya start a letter..”

“I think I've got it.” Hugo leaned back; when I looked up, his eyes were distant. “Write this down. There is something that I've wanted to say for a long time, and this is the only way I could to tell you. I know that we got off to a bad start, but over this time that I've known you.. it seems my friendship towards you has developed into something more.” His eyes were soft and yet intense, his tone intense. “And now I can't keep it to myself. I have very deep feelings for you. I want you to be my side through every challenge that we face. And I can only hope that you return my feelings.”

Coming from him, that almost sounded like a confession. “Hugo-”

He looked up at me. “Did you get that?”

“Oh, right!” Geez, I'd almost forgotten what we were doing! I grabbed my quill again. “Uh, can you start again from the top?”

The next morning, I gave Elias the note, innocently saying that Yukiya had left it for him. “I think he wants you to meet him in the courtyard once you read it.” At the same time, Hugo was instructing Yukiya to meet him there.

Elias's eyes lit up as he read the note, and he hurried out to the courtyard. I followed after him, trying not to be too obvious. Hugo and I ended up watching from a distance.

“I wonder what they're saying..” From that distance, I could see they were speaking- and looking a little confused, but I couldn't make out the words. But I could sure see that they were smiling a lot, practically bouncing on their feet. Although, I felt a chill run up my spine- it seemed like they were looking at us.

“So,” I asked Elias later, “how did it go?” Even though I already knew. Hugo said he got a lot of power from them.

“It went really well! It turns out he had feelings for me as well, and we started dating!” He was grinning from ear to ear. “Although, I was a little surprised when he mentioned Hugo..”

“Oh, uh, I can explain-” I'm sure my face was bright red.

“No need, no need to explain,” Elias said with a wink.

Yukiya breezed into the office, grinning from ear to ear, walking up to Elias. “Are you busy?”

“I'll just give you some time alone~”

As I left, I could hear them talking as they held hands. “Yeah, yeah, it's so totally obvious,” Elias was saying. “Everyone can see-”

That trick worked pretty well. We tried it again with Lars and Gray. Gray was so happy to get the letter that he was practically floating; I could hear Lars talking at top speed even across the courtyard. They walked hand in hand.

'This trick didn't work half-bad,' I thought. 'Maybe I should try writing a letter myself..'


	3. Chapter 3

“So, it looks the next couple on our list is Klaus and Randy. Do you think the letter trick would work for them too?”

“I don't think so.” I couldn't tell him I'd used up all my paper trying to write notes to them. “Besides, if we use that too many times, people will start to get suspicious, don't you think?”

“Well..” Hugo turned to look at me, resting his chin in his hand. “We can always stop. I think I have enough couples to charge from. I mean, we could-”

“No, no, it's okay! I want to keep doing this!” It may have been selfish, but this was one of my best excuses to spend time with Hugo. And we were making people happy, weren't we? “So, what shall we do for Klaus and Randy?”

I leaned over. “Well, Randy's an inventor.. Perhaps we can work with that.” And perhaps he could help me too.

“Do you really think that this is going to work?”

It was strange to see the normally confidant Randy so nervous, especially when Hugo and I were holding one of his 'potions' in our hands. Well, that was a good sign. “I'm.. sure it's going to be fine-”

“Serge!” Aand as Klaus burst into the room, Randy put on his grin.

“Oh, hey, Klaus, how are you?”

“Not very well, since I heard that you were making some kind of love potion.”

“No, no, it's not a love potion!” Randy reassured him. “It's a potion that will make the person who drinks it confess their feelings for the object of their affection. Hugo and Liz were just about to test it out for me.”

“Really?” I nodded. “That sounds ridiculous. How do you even know if it will work?”

“If you don't believe in it, Klaus, you can try it for yourself. After all, you'll be safe. It's not like you have someone special you have your eye on?” Was it a little mean to tease him? It had only been a few days since he'd told me about his crush.

“..Very well. Better that I try it than these two anyway.”

“Great!” Randy practically shoved the potion at him. “Here you go!” We watched with baited breath as he took the potion; he gulped it all down in one go. “..Do you feel anything?”

“Nothing,” Klaus said finally. “How strange, considering how amazing your potions tend to be.” Hugo and I exchanged a look as Klaus mused. Randy couldn't take his eyes off him. “At least it had a pleasant taste, I suppose. And..” He sniffed at the glass again. “What is that smell? It's almost like.. cotton candy.”

“I used a lot of it in the potion,” Randy admitted quietly.

“I suppose it's not so bad,” Klaus mused quietly. “It's a pleasant smell, like the kind you're always cloaked in. Really reminds me a lot of you.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Randy asked.

“Not at all. It reminds me of you. How your eyes sparkle when you invent something.. how we used to have fun-” He seemed lost in his own little world, reminiscing. “How nice it was to see that smile again after all these years-”

Hugo leaned in, whispering in my ear, “I think the potion worked.”

“Klaus!” Randy raced across the room, throwing his arms around him. “I had no idea you felt that way about me!”

“Serge,” Klaus asked cautiously, “what was in that potion?”

“Oh, it wasn't a potion at all. Just some condensed cotton candy flavoring. Everything you said was from your own heart! I had no idea-” Klaus went pale as he realized that his gushing had been from his own heart. “I feel the same way about you!”

“Well,” Klaus said, pulling him into a hug, “maybe that wasn't a bad idea..”

As we were watching, Hugo whispered to me, “This is nice but maybe we should get out of here before Klaus gets mad.”

“Good idea,” I grabbed Hugo's hand, and we dashed out the door.

“A love potion, hmm?” Leslie said when it was offered to him. He was sitting together with Sigurd in the park. “I can only imagine what it would be like if Chica got her hands on it.”

“I definitely want to try it!” Chica said.

“Leslie, don't you think you should try it so you know it's safe for her?” Sigurd said with his usual grin.

“I guess..”

Hugo and I were laughing as we dashed away, a few minutes later. “I'm not sure who was gushing more,” he said. “Leslie or Chica!”

“Sigurd's kiss did get him to stop though,” I said. “Who knew a boost of confidence could prompt something like that?”

“If only something like that potion really existed,” Hugo mused. “Imagine how many people it could help.” I had gone and asked Randy, but he said even he couldn't make something like that.

“If only..”

“I'm telling you, you're the Phantom Thief-”

“Liz, not so loud!” Nox cast a glance over at Hugo, standing by the doorway. Hugo just rolled his eyes.

“The identity of the Phantom Thief is already wildly known in the future,” he said.

“There's so much love going around the academy recently, it would be perfect for the Phantom Thief of Hearts to show up and steal his crush's heart!”

“Well, I had heard about all the couples getting together recently. I had even heard you two had something to do with that.” I let out a nervous laugh at that. I didn't know the rumors had spread so far. “It might be a good idea. And if it doesn't work,” he said in a somewhat nervous tone, “I'll just never be the Phantom Thief again. What's the worst that could happen?”

“..Right.” Were we going a bit too far?

By the time Hugo and I got to the Prefect's Office, the others were already gathering there. Even Vincent and Glenn were there.

“Is it true?” Glenn asked. “There was a calling card from the Phantom Thief?”

“What did he say he was going to steal?” Lizzy asked. Rex blushed, holding the card close to his chest.

“Is that really relevant?” he said. Of course, Nox had made it quite clear on the card what he was actually after, but it couldn't have been easy to explain that the Phantom Thief was after his heart.

“Well, we should know-”

“Why don't you ask him yourself?” For a moment, the lights flickered- and then there was the almost sickening smell of roses filling the air. And when the lights were back on, there stood the Phantom Thief, in full gear, grinning from ear to ear. “I've been hearing of all the good tidings and romantic spirit at the academy; what kind of Phantom Thief of Hearts would I be if I didn't indulge it in myself?”

“Phantom Thief of.. Hearts? Since when did you add that to your name?” Rex asked.

“Well, not always,” he said with a wink, “but I can be for a certain someone,” he said, stepping closer to Rex. I could see his face lighting up bright red. “You've thwarted a lot of my thieving attempts, but this time I cannot fail.” And, in a flash, he was holding out a bouquet of roses. “I'm here to steal your heart, Rex.”

“There's no need,” Rex said after a long moment. “You already have it.”

“Well, that's a surprise!” Vincent said with a laugh. “It sure puts someone in a romantic mood, eh?” I didn't miss his arm winding around Glenn's waist- nor how his partner didn't try to brush it away.

“Since you're here though,” Glenn muttered, “it's still our duty to arrest you.”

“Whoops, that's not a good way to start, is it? Looks like I should get out of here.” He tossed down something, the lights flickering off again. But we could all hear his voice call out to his partner, “I'll call you!”

Hugo and I were still laughing even as the others left the office. “I have to admit,” he said, “I didn't actually think that would work!”

“You got an extra couple out of it too,” I pointed out. “Your powers are going to be extra strong now, aren't they?”

“Indeed,” he said, his eyes sparkling, “I can feel my powers getting stronger by the day. And it's all thanks to you.” When he looked at me like that, I could almost pretend that it was adoration in his eyes. That if I confessed, it would go well.

“Well, we've helped.. almost every couple on campus,” I said. I'd almost lost count of how many couples had gotten together because of us.

“I guess we don't really need to do this anymore,” he said.

“I guess,” I said. Was he said or was it just me?

“There's actually somewhere that I wanted to go with you,” he said. “Will you meet me here tomorrow afternoon?”

“I'd like that.”


	4. Chapter 4

“You still haven't confessed to him?” Amelia asked. “That's odd, I heard that you two were practically inseperable.”

“Uuugh, I know,” I groaned, burying my head in my pillow. “This whole couple stuff was the best excuse I had to spend time with him. If only I could find another couple to help-”

“Well, perhaps I can help you with that,” Amelia said with a laugh, sitting next to me. “Scarlett and I aren't public yet. Perhaps you and Hugo can help us get together?”

“You'd really do that for me?” I said, sitting up.

“Of course! We still owe Hugo for saving me that one time.” She clapped her hands together. “Oh, there's this one restaurant in town that I've been dying to take Scarlett to, this is going to be a lot of fun~”

I showed up bright and early to the Prefect's office the next morning. I nervously fixed my hair. 'I wondered where he wanted to go?'

“Did I keep you waiting long?” And just like that, he was there.

I shook my head. “I just got here myself,” I said. “But, uh,” now I was starting to feel a bit nervous about this, “something actually came up yesterday, and I need your help.” Hugo tilted his head. “You see, in all of our adventures, I almost forgot about Amelia and Scarlett! They've been crushing on each other for sooo long.”

He sighed. “Well, what did you have in mind?”

“Amelia told me that she wanted somewhere romantic to confess her love to Scarlett. So we were talking about getting them reservations at this fancy restaurant, Tempus, in town. Do you think we could manage that?”

Hugo smiled. “I think I could manage that.”

'Okay, this is not a date,' I told myself. 'You're just meeting Hugo at a fancy restaurant. No need to feel nervous.' But it didn't hurt, I reasoned, to dress up nicely myself.

My heart raced as I stepped into the restaurant; it was way fancier than I expected, practically everyone was in ball gowns, and the food was unlike anything I'd seen before. The lights were lit low, and tables were even decorated with roses!

To my surprise, Hugo was in a much simpler outfit, without his armor and hair accessories. “Oh, Hugo, you look nice.”

“I thought wearing my suit would be a bit much,” he said shyly, but he looked up. “Are Amelia and Scarlett here?”

“Oh yeah, they should be here any minute now! We should get a table so that we can watch them and make sure the confessions go well. Though I'm not sure if we can get a table-”

“Right this way.” He lead me over to a table, pulling out my chair.

I couldn't help but giggle. “Thank you.” He took a seat across from me, and we looked over. I could see Amelia and Scarlett starting to enter the restaurant. “Look, there they are!”

“Wow, this place is beautiful,” Scarlett said as Amelia lead her along, passing our table. “You must have something very special to tell me.”

“Well, this is a very special night. But shall we order?” They laughed as they took a seat.

“We should probably order too,” Hugo said. “It would look suspicious if we sat here without any food, wouldn't it?”

“Oh, I-” Somehow, in all my excitement, it hadn't occurred to me we'd be eating together. I hadn't brought any money with me! “This is kind of embarassing-”

He shook his head with a smile. “Don't worry, this is my treat.” My heart jumped. Geez, could I fall for him any more?

He didn't bat an eye when we ordered fancy dishes, nor when the waiter laid the roses on the table and lit the candles. “Enjoy your date~”

“Thank you,” Hugo said coolly. Of course, we couldn't look suspicious.

“This is really a beautiful place,” I said with a giggle. “I've never been to a place like this before. I'm surprised that you were able to get a reservation so quickly.”

“Well, Vain was able to pull a few strings.”

“Vain would pull strings for Amelia and Scarlett? That's awfully nice of him.”

“..Sure,” he said. “You look really nice tonight. The moonlight really suits you.”

“Keep talking like that, and I might just fall for you,” I said without thinking. And when his eyes widened, I quickly excused myself. “Forget I said that.”

Even in such a fancy restaurant, it was surprisingly easy to talk to him. We chatted about anything and everything-

Come to think of it, this might be the perfect place to confess. “Hugo, I-”

“Look!”

I looked over to see Amelia standing up, taking Scarlett's hand. “Scarlett, I have very deep feelings for you. Will you be my girlfriend?”

“I thought you'd never ask,” Scarlett said with a kiss.

I could hear the footsteps pacing outside the door of the Prefect's Office. “Do you really think this is going to work?”

Amelia, bless her, had managed to pull strings with Augustus too. So I'd made a bunch of cookies, and Guy was going to use them to confess to Augustus.

“I have to admit, it's pretty clever,” Hugo mused. “Who wouldn't accept a confession after eating some of your cookies.”

“I-I made some extras!” I held out the box that I had made just for him. “I thought you might be hungry after all of this matchmaking.”

“Thank you,” he said, accepting my cookies with a twinkle in his eyes. As he started to eat, he said, “These cookies are delicious. Your cooking's getting better every day, I swear.”

“Thank you! That means a lot. I actually made these because-”

“Yes, of course I'll go out with you!” I heard Augustus holler from the hallway. I looked out to see Augustus and Guy hugging.

Well, at least my cookies got someone together. Now if only they could work for me and Hugo, I wouldn't have to keep going through this.


	5. Chapter 5

“You know, little prince," Zeus said, "if you didn't want to keep falling flat on your face, perhaps you should've gotten an outfit that actually fits.”

“Shut up!” Lucious said as he brushed himself off. “So I've been tripping a few times, big deal!”

Hiro rolled his eyes as he heard the two of them bickering. “You'd think that all that arguing would get a little old after a while, but they never seem to get tired of it.”

“Mhmm.”

“Are you all right?” Lizzy asked. “Have things not been working out with Hugo?”

“Oh, spending time with Hugo has been wonderful. But I just keep making up these dumb excuses, and I can't seem to get the words out.”

“Is that why you've been matchmaking so much?” Alfonse asked. “The whole school's talking about it.” Greeeat.

“It's a shame. Here I was hoping you could get these two idiots,” Caesar gestured over his shoulder, “to actually admit their feelings for each other.”

Hmm.. That might not be such a bad idea after all.

“See, those donuts aren't so bad.”

“There's still so many things I haven't tried in this new world,” Lucious mused as we were walking through the courtyard together. “The world has changed so much since-”

“You shut up!” I heard the familiar voice bellow across the courtyard.

“I can't believe that you're defending him,” Hugo sneered. “Considering how much you two fight, I thought you'd be the first to agree with me.”

“That's- the truth is-” It was strange to see even Zeus flustered. Lucious seemed absolutely frozen, watching the two of them.

“Are they talking about-”

“I mean, look at how much trouble the little prince got us in. I mean, if he had just stayed in his castle, my whole-”

“SHUT UP!” Zeus roared, grabbing Hugo by the collar. “Don't you dare talk about him that way! You have no idea how much joy he's brought into my life! What he means- how could you possibly know that?!”

“Zeus!” Lucious cried, throwing his arms around him. Zeus hastily released Hugo, wrapping his arms around him.

“Lucious- how much of that did you hear?”

“I can't believe that you'd defend me like that-” Lucious said. “You'd really fight Hugo for me?”

“I'd fight anyone for you,” Zeus said quietly, pulling him into a hug.

Hugo smiled. “It looks like my work here is done.” Lucious looked up in confusion, but I heard Hugo whisper as he brushed past him, “I'll explain everything later.”

As Hugo slipped to my side, I saw that a crowd was starting to gather. And I noticed someone in particular watching the two of them- and I could almost see sadness in his eyes.

“Are you all right?”

“I'm just fine,” Hiro said as we were walking down the halls of the Night Class. “Why wouldn't I be fine? I don't have to babysit the brat anymore.”

“You just seem a little sad.” He avoided my eyes.

“It's nothing. Isn't it a good thing that someone else gets to handle the biggest troublemaker in the Night Class?” And we could hear familiar voices yelling down the hall.

“Do you want to go back to the Detention Chamber?” Lucious yelled. “Because at this rate, you're going to end up in there for life!”

“Great.” We hurried and burst through the doors. The entire room was in chaos, stuff scattered all across the room. It looked like the room had been turned upside down. And a familiar face stood in the center of it.

“Well, maybe now he'll finally-” Viggo paused as he saw us in the doorway. “Oh, how long have you been there?”

“I should expect nothing less from the biggest troublemaker in the Night Class,” Hiro said with a smile, walking up to him. “But we probably should get you down to the detention chamber.”

“..Do I have to go?” Viggo asked even as he was following him out the door.

“Don't worry, I'm sure your connections will get you out of there eventually. How do you keep doing that?”

“I'll explain later.”

I let out a sigh of relief. It looks like things were going to work out after all.


	6. Chapter 6

“Well, it's good to know that he found someone too,” Hugo was saying as we relaxed over at his house. “Better to stick with the familiar.”

“Now we can say that we've gotten everybody on campus together,” I joked. But then it hit me that it wasn't a joke. We'd put together a lot of couples over the past weeks- and I couldn't think of anyone who was single now. “Wow..”

“I had a lot of fun helping you,” Hugo said quietly. “But.. if we're done with all of that, there's something that I wanted to tell you-”

He was annoyed with me, I thought, turning my gaze awau. He was gonna turn me away. Now that I had no excuse, he didn't watch to have anything to do with me-

“Wait!” I cried. “There is someone else who's single!” Of course, why didn't I realize it before? “We should ask Willem who he has a crush on!” I mean, I could take a guess, but-

“Willem?” Hugo said. “I don't think that's a good idea-”

“Come on, it'll be fine!” I said, rushing out the door. “He should be home right about now-”

“Liz!” I don't know what I was thinking as I hurried to Willem's house. Perhaps I just wanted an excuse to spend more time with Hugo-

“Willem?” I called, knocking on his door. “There's something that I wanted to ask you.” No answer. “Willem?”

Without thinking, I opened the door-

Oh.

“Oh- hi, Felix. When did you get back in town?”

“L-liz! What are you doing here?” Willem hastily scrambled to his feet, nearly knocking over the table with the cake.

“I was coming to offer my matchmaking services, but it appears that you don't need my help in that regard.” My gaze fell to the other Dragonkin in the room- happily munching on the cake. “Hello, Felix.”

Hugo finally caught up to me, out of breath. “Oh, good,” he said without missing a beat, “I see you found out.”

I was expecting Felix to glare at us, but he wouldn't take his eyes off of Willem. I'd never seen him look so happy before. “Ah, were you expecting guests?”

“N-not really,” he looked up at us, “can you come back another time?” Right, I'd save the questions for another day. And suddenly I had a lot more questions than before.

Hugo pulled me back to his house, and I couldn't help but blurt out, “So, uh, did you know-”

“Yep,” he said. “They didn't _realize_ that I knew, but I could sense their feelings for each other through out the entire village. Felix always tries to hide when I come over.” He paused for a moment, then gave a smile. “Sometimes I do stay over a bit longer just to annoy him.” I couldn't help but giggle at that.

“It looks like they didn't need our help after all. Now it's official- everyone on campus is in a relationship. Except for.. well, us.”

“Liz-”

“But there's a bright side,” I said, “at least you'll have a lot of people to charge from. I mean, you'll probably never get bored of your options.” I tried to keep the bitterness out of my tone, but I think that it still shone through.

“Liz, I.. actually wanted to talk to you about that.” He sat up, and my stomach lurched.

'This is it. He's going to say that he doesn't want to spend time with me anymore. That he's glad that we're done with all this crap so that he can go back to his normal life-'

“The truth is.. I haven't needed to charge my powers from others in a long time.”

“What? But- how? I thought you had to charge from love-” I blurted out.

“I haven't needed to charge from others,” he said, “because I'm in love with you.”

Oh. _Oh._

“Liz?” I tried to speak, but I think all that came out was a squeak. “Liz, are you all right?”

“I'm in love with you too!” I blurted out. Oh, goodness, how good it felt to finally tell him! “That's.. why I've been doing all this matchmaking crap! It sounds silly now, but I thought- if I could help you with your powers, it would give me a chance to spend more time with you. Goodness, I even asked Amelia to help-”

“Liz.” I shut my mouth as he reached out, tucking my hair behind my ear. My heart melted at his smile. “I should apologize too. I knew that I could recharge my powers, but.. I guess I just wanted an excuse to spend a little time with you too. And I've never had so much fun as I have with you these past few days.”

I reached out and took his hand. And finally, I could say the words I'd been wanting to say for so long. “I love you, Hugo.”

He smiled. “I love you too, Liz.”

The next day, I was walking on air. No matter how many times I told myself it was true, it seemed impossible to believe- Hugo was in love with me, and I in love with him.

“You're in a good mood today,” Lizzy mused. “Did you finally tell you-know-who about your feelings for him?”

“Lizzy,” I hissed, “not so loud-”

“Oh, come on,” Caesar, his arm around Alfonse's waist, said with a smile, “it's not like it's such a big secret. Everyone knows that you and Hugo have been crushing on each other for forever.”

“Yeah, it's really obvious,” Alfonse agreed with a laugh.

“I assumed that's why you wrote that obviously fake note from Yukiya,” Elias, cuddled up next to his boyfriend, said. “We were laughing about it for days.”

“You saw through that?!” I cried, burying my face in my hands. Oh god, I really thought that I had them fooled!

“It was pretty obvious even before Hugo apologized for badmouthing me,” Lucious said, resting his head on Zeus's shoulder.

“Doesn't mean that I'll forgive him for it though.”

“Honestly, I thought that you started dating when you started that matchmaking scheme,” Lizzy mused. “Not to mention, Vain said that he acquired reservations for Hugo and his date, then you guys were spotted there the next day-”

“That was- Agh!” I buried my face in my hands as they told me the truth. For all we'd talked about their crushes, all of them had been talking about us. “Does everyone know?!”

“Pretty much,” Zeus said. “The whole school is talking about it!” Great. Just great.

“Liz?” I looked up as I heard the beautiful voice- my _boyfriend's_ voice. “Are you ready to go?”

I looked around, and everyone nodded. I quickly got to my feet. “Coming! I was just finishing up some business here!” Even with the others laughing, I hurried out the door. And my heart jumped as I saw Hugo waiting for me.

“You ready to go on our first official date?” he asked as he took my hand.

“Ready.”

Who would think that, after all that helping the others fall in love, we'd end up together like this? Who knew it would all be so simple after all?


End file.
